Monthly Archives: April 2016

This is the first guest travel blog on the website written by a wanderbug, who is also a very dear friend, Neelambari Warty. She owns the travel brand “Beyond Trails” which is connecting the world one person at a time. Her motto is to create memories for people that last a lifetime and she strongly believes in travel therapy. Her company provides wonderful customized travel packages and ensures that you start looking at travel from a different perspective. This write up is from her travel website and all the pictures shared are her copyright. This is about a trip we did together, which has been one of the best trips of my life. Below is the link to her travel website which I highly recommend everyone to visit:

I have always been disheartened with the perception of education by some people in our country. Education is not just about holding a degree or diploma in a particular field. It is also about being sensible, sensitive, aware, discerning and responsible. It is good to see that nowadays more schools and parents have started to focus on all the aspects of development of a child and have started sensitizing children about being a worthy part of the society. Moreover, it is important we look within ourselves and introspect before we comment on someone else’s education or intelligence quotient. These feelings have inspired me to write this story on the theme “Education”.

//This article has been published by Women’s Web and was among the top 5 most popular articles of the year 2016 on the website. It is available at the below link:

http://www.womensweb.in/2016/10/to-quit-or-not-to-quit-work/

This article has been published on Youth ki Awaaz and is available at below link:

https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2017/02/to-quit-or-not-to-quit/

https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2017/02/to-quit-or-not-to-quit/

I have vivid memories of that moment. I had just read my 5th appreciation email from the top management of my unit. It was for a presentation delivered by me during an important tour, and the accolades were primarily due to the fact that I was roped in for something that critical at the eleventh hour and managed it successfully. I knew that this would be considered as an extraordinary achievement in my next performance review and I should have been exultant about this. But, though I felt satisfied and triumphant, I was not exactly jumping over it. It was unlike me and I could not fathom why. All I knew was I just wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep. I was fatigued due to the frenzy of the last few days before the tour but, more than the exhaustion, something else was plaguing my mind. I shut my eyes and went into trance imagining myself dancing under a spotlight in a dark room. As bizarre as this may sound, this did happen and this is precisely what provoked me into thinking about what I wanted from life. It was such a conspiracy that I fell very sick that night. The night went by with a flurry of thoughts in my brain for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually, with some questions and many more answers in my head, I spoke to my husband the next day and dropped the bomb. Yes, I wanted to resign! This decision was influenced by multiple factors. I was prepared to face a scandalized husband but to my pleasant surprise, he was extremely cool and supportive. We did our calculations and concluded that we can survive on the salary of one earning member in the family. The next step was to speak to my managers and one of them, whom I admire and respect immensely, suggested that I take a long break instead of resigning. I was grateful because that would give me some time and space to figure out which road I wanted to pursue my journey on.

I have often heard people say that prostitution or porn should be made legal because it is a personal choice on both sides. But, the fact is that in our country, in most cases it is not a “choice” on both sides. From the point of view of the adult indulging in it as a “buyer”, it might be harmless but what about the other side? Having personally worked with the girls forced into prostitution or even porn sometimes, I know that the condition in which they survive is pathetic. I am sure you would not even want to hear about the torture they go through which forces them to give an impression of “willingness”. Trust me, most of them do not want to be a part of it and those who do, do it not because of being “professional” but because they know they are not going to be accepted in society to do anything else. They begin to “accept” this as life . Point is that human trafficking and all other vices associated with this industry exist because there is a “market” for it. So simply saying, it should be a choice and made legal is not the way to go about handling this complex web of a murky problem. A lot of actions need to be taken in conjunction to deal with it. Think about it !

They say home is where the heart is. But what if your heart is scattered all over the place ? At every walk of life right from birth, we meet people and give a part of our heart to some of them. Is this why I can never really “feel at home” ? I always imagine it would be great to have all the people who matter to us at one place, and there would be no pain of separation. Wishful thinking, sigh ! This is exactly why a “Good-Bye” is so heartbreaking, because in true sense you are bidding farewell to a part of your heart. But, this is the beauty of life, because for every piece of heart you part with, you get back another piece So, even if you don’t have your heart in place, you have the immense love from people across the globe and this love is what keeps us going.

Sitting at the seashore, basking in our moment,
My eyes wander to an effervescent adolescent.
In a trice, my mind starts brimming with thoughts of your future,
Pondering over sowing the right seeds for you as I nurture.
With a hopeful gleam in my eyes and a smile on my lips,
My grey matter begins to converse with you about life, the tricks and tips.